Life
by SilverWolf7
Summary: Jackie thinks on the Doctor and life in the universe, as he goes through the first trimester of pregnancy. Sequel of sorts to Baby Boom.


Follow on from Baby Boom. Less funny, more just random thoughts. Jackie and her thoughts on the universe expand a bit with the Doctor's condition.

Life

Scrounging up enough money for the camcorder had been hard, but between her, Rose, and the Doctor's sonic screwdriver when all else failed, she had enough money to buy one. A good one too, with a long lasting battery which had been boosted by the Doctor's gadgets and seemed likely to never run out.

Currently she was filming the Doctor vomiting into the toilet, because it seemed rather important at the time. She remembered well what it felt like to feel nauseous day in, day out, with no sign of it ever letting up.

He was nearly out of the first trimester now, and he was at least feeling better most of the time. He was lucky though, he had these nifty pills to stop him from vomiting all the time. He had forgotten to take it this morning. So much for the nice breakfast she had cooked.

He coughed, spat and laid his head heavily on the toilet seat with a groan. "Why in the world do people go through with this? I feel awful _all the time_."

"Cause it's how people populate their species. You know this, stop being so silly."

She put the camera down, still pointed at him and on, and filled a glass with water for him to drink. "Here, rinse, spit and then drink."

He did so, and out of his pocket came the small pill he had forgotten so conveniently. "I didn't feel sick when I woke up. I was fine during breakfast. Why did I have to start vomiting now? I know it's going away. My body's adjusting. And why, exactly are you recording me being sick?"

"I was going to do the same with Rose. It's a way to let you see the ups and downs of pregnancy. And most people get morning sickness."

He lifted his head and grimaced, getting up from his place on the floor to fill up and gulp down another glass of water. "Why do you call it morning sickness anyway? And why do both species involved in the making of this parasite have to suffer through it?"

"12 weeks mister. 12 weeks and you still insist on calling your baby a parasite. Don't you want it?"

The Doctor glared. "I didn't really have a choice in the matter of whether I wanted it or not. It's not like I ever expected to become pregnant, being male and all."

Jackie folded her arms and glared right back. "Well, now would be a good time to start then, wouldn't it. And that reminds me...you still haven't told me what the mother looks like. Is it going to be green with tentacles?"

Sighing loudly, flushing the toilet of the mess he had made and walking out, she turned off the camcorder and followed him until he gave an answer. She wouldn't let it slide this time. She had figured out that she had been a humanoid, but that doesn't mean that it would look completely human like the Doctor does.

He slumped on the couch he had been sleeping on the past few weeks, since he refused to travel anywhere in the TARDIS while pregnant. It was driving him nuts, she knew, but he thought it best. He could sleep in her bed when he starts to get big. There's no way he'd be comfortable or even fit on the couch then. He'd already fallen off three times, due to nightmares. The fatigue that came during the first trimester was annoying him just as much as not travelling. And he was now unable to wear his tight fitting trousers. He was going about wearing tracksuit bottoms, which would stretch for a while yet.

Yawning, he lay down and wriggled into a comfortable position. The television turned on and he reached under himself, got the remote and turned it back off. "I want this out of me now, Jackie."

And if anything her worries were met. It was extremely weird to have a pregnant male in her flat, but he was about as much a part of her little family as Mickey had been. Now that Mickey was gone, Rose and the Doctor had made a habit of coming to visit a lot more often. She had been worried Rose would come home a teen pregnant. Thankfully that had never happened.

She'd come home with an alien instead which, while much more interesting, wasn't necessarily any better.

Now she spent half her time worried that Rose would come home pregnant with something that might not look human at all. _That_ was worse.

"You going to get rid of it then?" she asked, frowning, because even though she had no idea what it would look like when born, she already was quite fond of the child growing inside of him.

He sighed and shook his head. "No. I couldn't. I wouldn't. It's just...my mother didn't exactly have an easy time with me or my brother, and it's a bit...scary. I don't want anything to go wrong, but I'm not exactly the right being to mother a child. Since, you know, I should by rights be a father instead. Was once, you know. I've had children before, just not like this."

Jackie hadn't known that. "Really? Oh, I'm sorry."

His lips wobbled furiously, and he burst into tears a few seconds later, and Jackie sighed, went out to the kitchen, got him a tall glass of orange juice and left him to it. He wasn't used to the hormonal changes just as any other pregnant woman wasn't, and he was bursting into tears for what felt like no reason. Something does always trigger it, but sometimes even he didn't know what.

She was betting she knew what it was this time, and she had decided that it was a bad idea to talk of it anymore, lest he get over emotional and stress the baby.

He was right after all; he wasn't a natural mother, being a male and all.

He had given himself an ultrasound the week before. He hadn't taken pictures. He had spent the rest of the day rushing to the loo because of the water he had needed to fill his bladder to get a clear picture of the foetus.

She had told him soon he wouldn't need to go so often and he seemed extremely relieved.

"How is it growing in you anyways? I mean since you haven't got the parts?" she asked as soon as he had drank his juice and gone to the toilet.

"A kind of...womb-like sack. It attaches to whatever it finds. I don't know what will happen to my insides because of this, and really I don't want to think about it. Doesn't seem to be in a bad spot though. Not exactly the same thing as a female, but the baby needs somewhere to grow, and normal males just don't have the right equipment for the job."

Jackie smiled and patted his shoulder. "See? That's better, calling it a baby now instead of a parasite."

He moved his hands down to his belly and rubbed it. "I'm beginning to actually look pregnant. And it's hard to see features that it might not be born with because of its developmental stage. Some foetuses take longer to grow than others after all. 48 weeks I was. Early for my species, but like I said, my mother didn't have an easy time with either of her pregnancies."

He didn't get upset talking of his mother. She had no idea why. She wasn't about to ask either. He got upset easily over anything to do with his people, but her.

She raised an eyebrow at him and he shifted, not out of her gaze but because he was probably uncomfortable in the position he was in, before he grunted and frowned. "Cramp...my body really doesn't like this."

Jackie sighed. "Well, either it's bad, or it's your body stretching out that's doing it. Changing positions helps."

He looked at her and grinned. "Yeah. Been happening a lot for the past few weeks."

The poor man. His body might rebel against him completely and miscarry still, even though he was almost out of what she knew as the danger period for that. No wonder he had decided as soon as he had found out not to travel. And he'd have no way of knowing but through pain. He hadn't got anything to bleed out of. She had to wonder if it would poison his system if that happened.

"How long did your females stay pregnant for?" she asked, actually curious to know, and not just trying to change the subject to ease her own mind and fears for his safety.

He rubbed at his stomach for a few minutes, before relaxing as the cramp let go. "Umm, gestation period for my own race was a year. For the other species, it is 6 months. Development is going too fast for one species and too slow for the other. Which will probably mean a pregnancy that'll last about the same time as a human one, if not a little late or a little early? Either way, I'm going to keep a very close eye out on it."

Nodding, Jackie took a seat on one of the seats next to the couch and waited. A minute later and Rose walked in, frowning madly from the doorway, dressed in a ridiculous looking outfit. "I quit. Or wish I could anyway," her daughter stated, walking in to the room and flopping down on the other seat.

Rose, knowing that she and the Doctor would be staying awhile and all of them unemployed, had decided to go get a job for a bit of extra cash to save up for when the baby was born. It wasn't much, and as Rose had dreaded after Henrik's had exploded on her, it was at the local butchers.

At least the smell of meat didn't make the Doctor feel worse. She personally hadn't been able to stand the smell when pregnant with Rose. If anything he had said it made him hungry. He had a sweet tooth that one. He kept saying he wanted hot apple pie and vanilla ice cream. As cravings went it was tame.

"I'm sorry," the Doctor replied to Rose at her exclamation at not liking her job, but she waved it off and smiled at him.

"Not your fault. Got to keep you looked after, and with a baby on the way someone needs to be out to make a bit of money."

He smiled and Jackie could see that it was genuine and full of affection. Bless him, he might take Rose into all forms of danger all the time, and look after her well and good. Now that those roles were reversed, he didn't know how to act. Because he was in danger, and he knew it. And he loved her daughter all the more for taking on the role of provider.

It wasn't a reversal of roles in the gender way. The Doctor she had found out in quick order when he had gone job hunting for two weeks in places that desperately needed assistants, wasn't up to working on a normal job. He was too different for it to work. He always ended up losing the job anywhere between a few hours to a few days later. In the end, Rose had rolled her eyes and gotten one instead.

He would have had to quit around now anyway, since he was really beginning to show.

He had never said, but Jackie really thought he liked lazing about the flat all day. He was mind numbingly addicted to an alien soap he watched every day without fail. He also still took the time to go down to his ship and disappear in there for a few hours.

Once she had gone down with him, leaving a note to Rose about where they were, if Rose came home before they were back in the flat. He had spent two hours with his head on the armrest of a large lounge, smiling at the ceiling, rubbing at his belly the entire time.

He had looked entirely happy. Glowing even.

When she asked, he had replied that the TARDIS was singing to the baby.

It was only then that it truly sank in that the TARDIS was really alive. It really did have a mind of its own, his ship. She had been locked out of the kitchen once, when the Doctor had been craving what the ship thought of as way too much sweet foods. He had been too.

She had taken him back up to the flat, gave him a small bowl of ice cream, and afterwards held him as he whined about wanting more. After a while, he had settled down and just enjoyed the act of being touched.

He knew that while he craved sweet foods like nothing else right now, he couldn't have too much without harming the baby. Mainly he stayed away from foods that were too bad. Though Jackie did make sure for dessert he had a tiny slice of apple pie with a small scoop of ice cream. It helped a bit with the craving.

"So, what did you two do today, while I was busy serving people meat?" Rose asked, and Jackie grinned, and rewound what she had managed to put on tape. They all sat down together and watched the short video footage. Rose laughed and looked at him. "Didn't take your pill this morning?"

"I wasn't feeling sick this morning."

They grinned at each other and Jackie knew that regardless of what happened that they wouldn't leave each other for anything. They were completely head over heels in love with each other. One part of her wished that Rose had stayed with Mickey and lived a normal life, but a bigger part of her that was truly growing on the Doctor and his weird alien habits, knew that no one normal would ever be enough for her Rose.

It made her wonder about Pete sometimes, because in her head, she sometimes saw a lot of what her late husband was like in the Doctor. They were both someone who wiled away the hours coming up with daft plots and inventing things that didn't make sense to anyone else.

Maybe, just maybe, one of Pete's crazy schemes might have led to him actually becoming someone important. And while they had driven her crazy at the time, she had still loved that man dearly. He had been ripped away from the world too early to tell.

The Doctor got up, and disappeared into the loo, and Rose took a seat on the couch, switching on the telly with the remote just in time for the previews of the soap to come on.

If anything else, the Doctor being pregnant had taught her a few things about him. He loved her daughter just as much as Rose loved him. He wasn't a bad guy, in fact this version of him was rather loveable if you got past the hyperactivity which had thankfully waned with the fatigue.

She also learnt a few things about herself too. Because while he might on occasion complain about being male and pregnant, and it scared her that something might happen to the baby, it seemed so completely normal.

And normal was never that when the Doctor was concerned.

Her entire view of the universe had changed.

Though she didn't say anything to either Rose or the Doctor, she kind of liked what she saw.

What she saw was life.


End file.
